Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When once the forms of civility are violated, there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died; it was the triumph of hope over… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Do not hope wholly to reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We all live in the hope of pleasing somebody; and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and always will be… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is such a difference between the pursuits of men in great cities that one part of the inhabitants lives to little… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To scatter praise or blame without regard to justice is to destroy the distinction of good and evil. Many have no other… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are decreed; but while the soul and body continue united, it can… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope itself is a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords; but, like all other pleasures immoderately… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
